DARPA and its ARPA-E and IARPA clones: A unique innovation organization model

Abstract

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was formed in 1958 as a research and development (R & D) agency within the US Department of Defense, while the two newer but closely comparable R & D agencies, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA), were formed within the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in 2009 and 2007, respectively. The three share an ambitious innovation organization model, operating as public sector intermediaries between science and industry to pursue mission-oriented, high-risk/high-reward, breakthrough research. They also actively promote the follow-on development and implementation of technologies they support in their mission areas, achieving what has been termed mission innovation. They are therefore much more activist than more standard American R & D agencies, which do not pursue conscious technology strategies oriented to specific mission technology challenges. The three "ARPA" agencies tend to operate as change agents within the often conservative "legacy" sectors they operate within-defense, energy, and intelligence. Within the context of the overall US innovation system, DARPA and IARPA are leading examples of what can be termed the "extended pipeline" model, while ARPA-E is located within a more traditional R & D "pipeline" model agency, the DOE, trying to reach further down the innovation pipeline. All face the types of innovation barriers common to legacy sectors, which further challenge their efforts to implement their innovations. Despite these challenges, this ARPA model has proven quite dynamic; DARPA has an unparalleled record of technological advance, and the other two are rapidly building their own records. ARPA-E and IARPA show that the DARPA model is now a proven one in the innovation space, clearly relevant for consideration in other technology development mission sectors.